NBC 4: If you use Metrobus to get around the District and rely on transit updates from Twitter, bad news: the official Metrobus account was suspended Tuesday afternoon.
The Washington Metro Transit Authority announced the suspension on the official @wmata Twitter account, which was still active on Tuesday.
“Currently our @metrobusinfo account is suspended,” WMATA said in the tweet. “We’re working to get this restored for our bus customers. Sorry for the inconvenience. In the meantime, check wmata.com/alerts for Metrobus status, at-stop bus displays if available, or sign up for Metroalerts.”
“Metroalerts is our email and text service alert site to receive alerts when and how you want them,” WMATA said in a follow-up tweet. “Sign up or log into your account at http://wmata.com/metroalerts“
Around 3:45 p.m. on Tuesday, there were six bus alerts, affecting six Metrobus lines, according to that wmata website.
“Account suspended: Twitter suspends accounts that violate the Twitter Rules,” read a message in the space where tweets would normally appear on the @metrobusinfo Twitter profile.
It was not immediately clear what, if anything, the Metrobus account did to violated the Twitter rules. Policies listed on the webpage for those rules pertain to safety, privacy and authenticity.
Among the behaviors that can cause an account to be banned are: threats of or glorification of violence, terrorism or violent extremism, child sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment, hateful conduct, promotion of suicide or self-harm, posting graphic violence or adult content, or using an account to buy and sell illegal goods and services.
If the account is owned by someone who has perpetuated a violent attack, posts private information, posts spam, or impersonates another individual or organization, it can also be suspended or banned.
It was also not immediately clear whether the account was temporarily or permanently suspended.
Asked whether WMATA had any insight into why the Metrobus account was suspended or the timeframe for its restoration, the transit authority said “We’re looking into this and working to resolve it asap.”
Twitter has come under fire since CEO Elon Musk took over the platform for a number of policy changes. Among them was a quickly-retracted ban on promoting other social media sites, and a change to the Twitter rules that banned an account dedicated to tracking Musk’s private jet using publicly available flight data.
In mid-December, the platform also suspended the accounts of several journalists who cover Twitter, including reporters with The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Voice of America and other publications. The company did not explain the suspensions, but Musk accused the journalists of sharing private information about his whereabouts that he described as “basically assassination coordinates.” He provided no evidence for that claim.
The accounts of those journalists were reinstated two days later after Musk conducted a Twitter poll on the matter.
